If you sleep in, you can still see the sunrise.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Paul Jurak, otherwise known as Kayakcameraman, is fond of reminding people of this when they beg off 5.30am rises, pointing them instead to his website.
There, he records his early morning paddles in his kayak around Lake Burley Griffin, capturing spectacular dawns and the breathtaking scenery from a vantage point most Canberrans have never considered.
And now these scenes are going to be preserved for posterity by the National Library on Pandora, the institution's official web archive.
The site has been chosen as an important document of Australian - and particularly Canberran - life that people all over the country, and in the future, will be able to access.
The library's manager of web archiving, Paul Koerbin, said kayakcameraman.com ''ticked a number of boxes'' when it came to selecting it for archiving.
''We're always looking for interesting content,'' he said.
''We don't do everything, we have to prioritise for reasons of resources as much as anything, and the infrastructure of the website really doesn't allow us to do everything, so we have to be selective.''
The Pandora archive began as a National Library initiative, and has now grown to include nine other Australian libraries and cultural collecting organisations.
But it has fallen, by default, to the library to archive websites that have a Canberra connection, and that's where Kayakcameraman fits the bill.
''Some of the things that would have been taken into consideration are not just the beauty of the pictures, although that obviously strikes you, but the library's role is documenting heritage,'' he said.
''They do beautifully document life around Canberra in one of the main focal points of Canberra, the lake, so there's that aspect. There's also the fact that they're original … It's not other people's stuff, this is original new stuff documenting Canberra.''
He said Mr Jurak's backstory - a former plumber who took up kayaking while recovering from cancer - also played a role in selection. ''It's about the person as well - he's someone who lives and works in Canberra and does this, so there's a lot of that that will be of interest in the future, to see that,'' he said.
The fact the website has a growing following was not necessarily a deciding factor.
''We collect a lot of things in the national library that are not that popular,'' Dr Koerbin said.
''We have to try and get a broad coverage.''
But the fact Mr Jurak also uses Twitter, Instagram and has his images published on The Canberra Times website helped.
The library, in embarking on the Pandora project, plays a much more proactive role than it does in collecting and preserving the country's published material, and aims to archive around 1000 new websites or online publications a year.
Australian publishers are required by law to send the library copies of all published material, but there is no such requirement for the legions of bloggers and other online producers throughout the country, which means library staff have to comb the web and find material.
The process of preserving a website is also labour-intensive, and involves using a ''harvest robot'' to take a snapshot of every page and item on the site, as well as devising ways to make the material available in years to come when current-day technology is obsolete.
Mr Jurak said he was thrilled that his ''blip of a website'' had been selected.
''The thing that I got a good kick out of was that … we can look back in 100 years' time when we're 200 years old, because I've photographed the lake,'' he said.
''For the centenary year, we've photographed it and you can see the change over the year. Different landscapes, all the willows being chopped down, clearance on Springbank Island in the middle of winter … You'll see hopefully over the next 100 years, or 50, or 20, people will look back and go, 'Oh wow'.''
■ For more information about Pandora, visit pandora.nla. gov.au. To see more of Mr Jurak's photos, visit kayakcamera man.com